Gaius Paulinus Maximus

I'll be the god Apollo I'll be in my birthday suit , flying across the sky in a golden chariot drawn by white horses!

By day? And if by night? Like PP says the nearest thing that Rome had to a police force was a body of men known as Vigiles, they numbered upto 7,500 men and had to to act as both policemen and firemen The direction of the police was intrusted to three magistrates, called triumviri nocturni because their principal duty was to watch for the safety of the city at night. Valerius Maximus speaks of one of them, P. Villius, being fined quia vigilias neglegentius circumierat (for not having kept with diligence his nocturnal watch), and of other triumviri who were punished because they had not run with proper speed to extinguish a fire which had broken out in a jeweller's shop on the Sacra Via. Here's an inscription found on a pedestal at the site of a Vigiles barracks house known as a Statio "Severus and Caracalla emperors, to Junius Rufinus, prefect of the Vigiles, greeting. You are hereby authorized to punish with the rod or with the cat-o'-nine-tails (fustibus vel flagellis) the janitor or any of the inhabitants of a house, in which fire has broken out through negligence. In case the fire should be occasioned not by negligence but by crime, you must hand over the incendiaries to our friend Fabius (Septimianus) Clio, prefect of the city. Remember also that one of your duties is to discover runaway slaves and to return them to their masters."

I guess Steven Saylor runs low on money. Having exploited poor Gordianus over limits he needs to start new saga. If he will do it in "Roma sub rosa" style, the first book of his new serie will be average and each next will be worse than earlier. I thoroughly enjoyed the 'Roma Sub Rosa' series, so I'll be buying this book. It sounds like it's going to be a pretty epic tale, Should be interesting.

OK - as one of the few people on this board who will understand my next phrase, GPM - this is doing my head in! Please, can someone explain! I've tried unfocusing and re-focusing - there seems to be something vaguely appearing as a pattern, rather like those pics in magazine ads that hide a new Mercedes or something. Now, my eyes, behind my reading specs, are not what they were, but even so, I can't make head nor tail of it all. Help!!! This might help, have a practise on this then come back and try again. http://www.magiceye.com/ C'mon Augusta you can do it!!

By Hercules....... I've got it!!!!!!!!!! Very funny and good advice too

That will be great, can't wait,. Just out of interest, how long did it actually take you to complete the 'Roman Domus'?

Unfortunately I haven't read this book DC so I can't comment on it, but the best book I have on the Wall is called Hadrians Wall by David J Breeze and Brian Dobson, we discussed this book in an earlier thread. http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4937 This book was first published in 1976 so is even older than your book, but as far as I know it contains everything you need to know about the Wall, You can even buy it on Amazon for.....wait for it........1p......I kid you not! http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_b/026-...=david+j+breeze Scroll down the page to book number 8, I think I only paid something like 99p and the book is in pretty good condition too.

This is about the closest thing, so far. Too bad it requires Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw; those suckers are expensive. HEY! I just took a look at the model's home page; the builder is somewhere in Quebec, and I live almost directly on the Quebec border. I may be able to see the thing, in person! Now that would be something! To be able to walk around it and see it with your own eye's, I wonder how big it actually is, if you look at the Colosseum page you can have a look at the work in progress, the Colosseum is tiny, you really appreciate the attention to detail, those guys must have the patience of saints!

Excellent work Decimus. Have you anything else in the pipeline?

I believe that the little rings that you speak of are actually known as Aubery holes. At some time between 2700 and 2200 BCE, a strange series of pits called 'Aubery holes' after their discoverer John Aubery, were dug in a circle inside the mound. Although many of the pits had cremations in them, archaeologists have shown that the pits were dug long before the ashes were placed in them, so the pits probably had a different original purpose. Among the speculations is that the holes were a calculator for predicting eclipses of the moon. It is more likely however that the holes were used for putting offerings into. The Aubery Holes coincide in time with a change in pottery style, the so called 'Beaker pottery', which may or may not indicate an arrival of a new group of humans.

And directly precedes the Bacchanalia. Not that you should need the excuse to party hard for your natal day celebration. Interesting how the Bacchanalia coincides with St. Patrick's Day -- another day given over to drinking and revelry. -- Nephele Is this the same festival at which P Clodius was discovered dressed as a woman at the the house of Julius Caesar which resulted in Caesar divorcing his wife with the saying " Caesar's wife should be above suspicion" or words to that effect ?

Take a look at this site it has a full scale model of Rome with close up's of all the important site's like the forum, Colosseum, the temple's, all the district's, baths, aqueducts etc http://www.maquettes-historiques.net/P5.html It really is very impressive work, I'm sure Northern Neil will appreciate it.

You've certainly made a convincing case for him. It raises the question how tough these super tribes were if Belisarius could defeat not only the Vandals but the Ostrogoths with such small forces of his own. But I digress. These ' super tribes' were a very formidable enemy, they had already conquered most of he Western Empire and were slowly making their way across to the East and would have eventually descended onto Constantinople, they had very capable commanders in Gelimer and Totila and if it wouldn't have been for the intervention of Belisarius the Empire might well have been finished. In between the campaigns against the Vandals and the Ostrogoths he also had to cope with an invasion of Syria by the Persians,in which he ended up negotiating a truce and sending them back to Persia (albeit with a hefty sum of gold) and a promise never to set foot in Byzantine territory for the next five years. Another feather in Belisarius' cap was that he was the last person ever to receive a Roman triumph and also one of the last people ever to be named sole consul.

Happy birthday MPC, your parents couldn't have picked a better birth date for you if they'd tried! Have a great day CHEERS!

To be honest I don't know enough about the candidates to give an honest vote, but after googling each one and doing a bit of brief research on their careers and their lives I would have to give my vote to Aetuis, simply because his victory over Attila the Hun at the Battle of Chalons guarantees him, as Edward Gibbon states, immortality as "the man universally celebrated as the terror of Barbarians and the support of the Republic" of Rome. One name that hasn't been mentioned but I think deserves to be is Flavius Belisarius, he was undoubtedly one of the greatest Roman generals of all time, although he was from the Byzantine era he had the morals and virtue of the ancient Romans from the days of the Republic, many times his army had urged him to declare himself Emperor and overthrow Justinian, and everytime he flatly refused, he believed in the glory of the Empire and that he was there to serve and not to rule. His many campaigns and victories against the Vandals and the Ostrogoths he achieved with very little help or support from his Emperor but using his military genius and nearly always with the odds stacked firmly against him he always seemed to prevail. The one thing he had in common with Aetius is that no matter how much they did for the Empire they never really had the support or trust from their Emperor that they truly deserved although Aetius had once supported Joannes against Valentinian, so maybe Valentinian did have a reason to mistrust him, where as Belisarius had been thoroughly loyal to Justinian throughout his life, but in the end their Emperors were responsible for their demise. Anyone else think General Belisarius is worth a vote?

Tacitus described the Silures as a "naturally fierce people" and also said of them "......neither terror or mercy had the least effect; they persisted in war and could be quelled only by legions encamped in their country" There's no doubt that they were a pretty ferocious tribe, but as for the Welsh rugby team taking inspiration from them and wearing red because of them....Ha, what a load of cock and bull!

Ilian, Where exactly is here?

O'where o'where has our God Consul gone????????????? Can't believe that PP said that your the old man :wheelchair: of our community As Nephele would say..........LMAO

I've read a few of Cicero's letters before, but never in chronological order, thanks for this Ilian, thats my evening sorted out

Flashy is grateful for the invite and would love to help out in any way possible, after a few Guinness and blacks she'll probably start living up to her name! P.S. Will all the colleens be wearing the out fits above?? :wub: :wub:

Happy birthday O' Great One! :notworthy: Hope a have a great day

After a bit of digging I found these pictures........ The picture below shows a wide road with three stepping stones. Ruts were formed in these roads only near the stepping stones to guide the carts through them. And this one shows a typical narrow street in Pompeii. One stepping stone allows people to cross the road. The kerbs are higher than today's, mainly because the streets were regularly flooded to wash dust and debris away.

I've read somewhere that the 'stepping stones' were used by the Pompeiians to cross the street during heavy rainfall.?

Only the rich could afford a steady diet of meat. So wheat (known to the Romans as "corn" frumentum was the staple food of most Romans. They mostly ate it as a boiled porridge, sometimes adding flavorings or relishes to it. They had desserts too. And, of course, bread was a staple. I'd imagine that for breakfast they'd have something like a wheat biscuit of some sort or bread flavoured with a little bit of cheese, or dried fruit or honey, then for lunch maybe something like eggs, with bread and cheese (again) or maybe some left overs from the day before, then for dinner probably some sort of wheatmeal porridge and probably a little bit more bread. For drinks they had a bit more of a selection, they had a drink called calda which was warm water and wine laced with spices, mulscum which was honeyed wine, posca which was vinegar mixed with enough water to make it drinkable and of course plain old watered down wine.

The Romans were a very superstitious race, here's a few of their many superstitions - People placed importance on the random word or phrase. - A place struck by lightning was considered sacred to Jupiter. - One was advised to touch the earth when it thundered to prevent a lightning strike. - Romans in the late Republic believed Civil Wars mirrored the Romulus and remus legend, and that Rome was forever cursed to repeat that struggle. - Garlic was believed to make soldiers courageous. - Romans believed cabbage prevented drunkenness, cured paralysis and protected against the plague. - The days following the Kalends, the Nones and the Ides were considered unlucky days. - 24 Sextilis, 5 October, 8 November--- dates when the gates to the underworld were supposed to open--- Roman armies did not engage in battle on these days. - It was unlucky to wed in Maius, the month of the Lemuria, or in the first half of Junius, or on the Kalends, Nones or Ides of any month. Thats just a few, anyone know of anymore?